Guam's delegates from the independence task force, who attended the United Nation's 72nd General Assembly in New York, will share with the community their testimony to the Special Political and Decolonization Committee.

Members from the Guam Commission on Decolonization and Independent Guåhan also will discuss the conversations they had with representatives and ambassadors of independent nations and other non-self-governing territories, including New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the Western Sahara.

Residents are invited to attend the forum, which starts 6 p.m. Thursday at the University of Guam School of Business and Public Administration's lecture hall, in Room 131.

Gov. Eddie Calvo and 16 delegates from Guam and the U.S. had the opportunity in early October to appear before the U.N. committee and make their case on the urgency for Guam to proceed on its quest for decolonization.

Vice Speaker Therese Terlaje, D-Yona, and Sen. Telena Nelson, D-Dededo, were among the delegates who asked U.N. committee chairman Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño to force the U.S. to cooperate with Guam. Sen. Fernando Esteves, R-Yona, joined the delegation in meeting with other nations and territories.

While in New York, Independent Guåhan gave presentations about Guam's political status to Columbia University, New York University, Rutgers University and Barnard College. The task force also will discuss the results of those presentations at the forum.

Guam is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. and joins 16 other non-self-governing territories around the world. Since the 1990s, the U.N. started an effort to eradicate colonialism by urging administering powers to assist in the decolonization of these territories.

The island has yet to conduct a plebiscite vote on what people think Guam's future political status should be: free association, independence or statehood.